Complaint Targets Prop. 199 Opponents

Backers of Proposition 199, a measure on next week’s state ballot that would phase out rent control for California’s mobile home parks, filed a complaint Wednesday alleging campaign finance violations by the group leading the opposition.

The complaint, lodged with the California Fair Political Practices Commission, claims that the Golden State Mobilehome Owners League improperly concealed the identities of its campaign contributors. The proposition’s backers also are asking the commission whether the league, a group representing residents of mobile home parks, improperly intermingled its operating funds with money collected for the anti-Proposition 199 campaign.

Steve Hopcraft, campaign strategist for the mobile home group, called the complaint “a joke” and a “desperate attempt to divert attention” from the group’s new radio ad campaign. Noting that the league has raised money to fight the initiative since 1994, Hopcraft added, “Why have they waited until the final days to file the complaint?”

Paul Kradin, a spokesman for the pro-Proposition 199 group Californians for Mobilehome Fairness, replied that “we weren’t paying close attention to the source of their funds before.”

According to state filings, the league has raised $320,000 for its anti-Proposition 199 campaign. Californians for Mobilehome Fairness, a group of mobile home park owners, has raised $2.1 million, both to qualify the measure for the ballot and then to finance the initiative campaign.